Saturday, September 6, 2008

The Love of Music




Somedays, I can't have enough of music. Either the Television or the Radio is on, playing their repetitive songs. And a friend of mine tells me that he and his 16 year old daughter sit up from eleven to twelve in the night listening to old songs on the FM. He says it is the most enjoyable part of the day for them, listening, talking and laughing with great songs playing in the background of the silent night.

Music is with us, and it gives us immense pleasure. There is hardly anyone who is deaf to its charms, and each has his own taste. In any public space, you are likely to be startled by the polyphony of music from the cell phones, as people perk up and fumble to take the incoming call.

Not only musicians by profession, even ordinary individuals such as you and me are liable to get addicted to music. I remember that on the nights when I got to go somewhere with my father, he would sooner or later break out into a song, mostly the skeletal form of a Carnatic Raga, "Tharareena..." and so on. He fancies himself as a man with a taste for music.

I can go on and on like this, but what got me on this topic is a book review I recently read, which is at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/books/review/Itzkoff-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

The love of music can make you say anything in its praise, and the author of this book, Daniel J. Levitin, goes as far as to claim that music has shaped the development of the human brain (Why not? It has shaped the brain of birds, has it not?).

But it is impressive that he is courageous enough to put all the different songs with lyrics into six categories:

songs of friendship,
songs of joy,
songs of comfort,
songs of knowledge,
religious songs
and love songs.

Such daring is possible only for the true Rasika, I feel.

And as for me, I have no ear for music. I can't catch the rhythm, can't remember the lyrics, it is usually just the first two lines that play again and 

again in my mind. I don't know what that says about me. 

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